Vaccines & Autism

I read an article on “Yahoo Health” today that I am going to rehash for you. I don’t normally do that kind of thing, but I felt this article was important and may be of interest to several of you.

The article says there is brand new evidence that vaccinations do NOT cause autism. It says “infants exposed to the highest levels of thimerosal, a mercury-laden preservative that USED to be found in many vaccines, were no more likely to develop autism than infants exposed to only a little thimerosal.

The new research offers what the article calls “reassurance” to parents who worry that vaccinations raise their children’s risk for autism.

I know this is always a hot button issue with parents, and it should be considered before getting your children vaccinated. Although, the levels of thimerosal in vaccines have now been reduced or eliminated thanks to the FDA’s involvement.

I chose to get both my boys vaccinated, but I understand there are many parents who do not.. partly for the fear of autism.

Just wanted to pass on the information just released today. The study was released online today in advance of the October publication of the magazine Pediatrics. If you want to read more, go to their website or get the magazine next month.

5 Responses to “Vaccines & Autism”

As the mother of an autistic child, I can say that I have read all the research that says vaccines had NOTHING to do with him being autistic. All I know is that I had a normally developing child who not only hit all his milestones, he hit them early. UNTIL his last round of shots at 18 months. I didn’t hear him say Mama again until he was 7 years old. He regressed & all progress of so called normal development stopped. I don’t want to debate the issue. Just stating what happened with my child. I am not anti vaccine. I just think that maybe we could wait a bit further along into a childs brain development before vaccinating. Vaccines may not explain all cases of autism, but I certainly blame it for what happened with my son.

All I know is…I worked at a physician clinic for several years and we had a mother with a 7 year old autistic son who was “convinced” her son’s autism had everything to do with his vaccinations. So, when she had her second son she chose NOT to vaccinate him AT ALL. NONE.
Guess what? Around 12-18 months she saw the same signs (as did we) that her second son was also autistic. Never had a shot. Hmmmm….
This is a LOCAL and true story, by the way. I know a lot of parents are concerned, I myself am a parent as well. But I’ve seen it happen when NO vaccinations were involved…and I think it’s far more likely my child could contract one of the horrible diseases I didn’t protect them against if I chose not to vaccinate. I’ve also thought: how many of us had all of our shots as kids with Lord knows what in the vaccines…but seems like now we have a ton of austitic diagnoses? There is definitely something going on, and we need to do more research to find out what, but it’s not the vaccines.

I believe that vacinnes do contribute to Autism,
My grandson now 7 years old is Autistic.
When he was a baby he was doing just fine!!! After one of his vacinnes he lost everything he had learned!!!
If it is’nt the vaccines then what is it???
So many children these days are being diagnised as Autistic.
When my grandson was diagnosed,according to Autism Speaks 1 in 150 children were being diagnosed. Now 7 years later it is 1-100!!
Something is definitly wrong!!!
I live in Vincennes and the church I attend only have about 120 memebers there every Sunday.. Out of the 120 there is myself and another couple that also have a 7 year old grandson with Autism!!!
That shows how prevalent Autism is!!
Neither my grandson or theirs can talk!!!
Autism is a very heartbreaking thing!!!
I have a gorgeous grandson that can’t talk to me!!! Talk about break your heart!!
Something needs to be done!!! Someone needs to be finding a cure or something to prevent it!!!

Just wanted to say that my son, who is 12, has severe autism, seemed to have normal development had his MMR a little after a year, the light died in his eyes. Had my second son, we seperated the MMR, he is fine. he is 6, and then I heard from my dr that they stopped making the seperate vaccines for the MMR, well I had my third son and I am delaying the MMR.

My concern, Patrece, is this, if thimersol is not an issue than why remove it or limit the amount in the vaccine?

Flu shots do contain thimersol, they say they have the mercury free shots, but what I was told from my sons dr is that there is still a trace of mercury in it.

I have an autistic child and do not believe the vaccinations “caused” his autism. Developmentally, I believe that it is just coincidence that many of the signs and symptoms of autism just begin to appear around the same time that vaccinations are typically given. Many of the signs like poor eye contact, delay in developmental milestones, delayed speech development, and stereotypical behaviors begin to appear around the same time or within close proximity of when shots are given; however this would not explain why some children develop autism and some do not, nor would it explain how children without receiving shots still develop autism. I think there must be a genetic/environmental component to this disease and I believe that more children are being diagnosed as autistic because the medical community has become more educated and aware of this disorder as well as the many “types” of autism that exist.
It is hard for our physicians to accuratly diagnose something they know nothing about as was the case several years ago which may account for the sudden rise in cases, not that it is any more prevalent than it was ten years ago, just that doctors now know that it is NOT MR. It is a heartbreaking diagnosis either way, no matter what causes it. My fear is that many parents will stop getting their children the shots and risk their child getting horrible childhood diseases with lifelong complications based on the fact that the shots “may” cause their child to be autistic.